How N Srinivasan misused power as the BCCI boss for personal interest

D-Day for N Srinivasan and his hopes of occupying the BCCI President's chair once again is around the corner as Supreme Court is expected to pass an order in the IPL spot-fixing and betting case anytime soon.

New Delhi: D-Day for N Srinivasan and his hopes of occupying the BCCI President's chair once again is around the corner as Supreme Court is expected to pass an order in the IPL spot-fixing and betting case anytime soon.

However, when Zee Media spoke to Srinivasan over the phone regarding IPL spot-fixing issue, he refused to talk about it.

Here, we list 12 points that clearly show how Srini has misused his position for personal gains as the most influential cricket administrator in world cricket.

1. Players like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik, Ravichandran Ashwin, Subramanium Badrinath, L Balaji, Ravindra Jadeja – are several cricketers who have either represented CSK or Team India and have employment contracts or are linked with company India Cements, owned by Srinivasan.

Mohinder Amarnath had earlier said that despite poor performances, these cricketers continued to play cricket for Team India. Having raised this issue, Amarnath was ousted from the race to become chief selector of the Indian cricket team. For his own benefit, Srini appointed the then chief selector K Srikanth as the ambassador of Chennai Super Kings.

2. For commercial reasons, Srini tried to create a bridge between his employees, CSK players and the selection of the Indian cricket team and tried using the popularity of the rising stars for the benefit of India Cements and Chennai Super Kings.

3. Gurunath Meiyappan was accused of leaking team information to bookies. Srini formed a two-member committee to probe his son-in-law that gave him a clean chit after questioning him just for three hours. The committee said that the matter was related to betting and not match-fixing. It is also alleged that Srini told the media about the committee's findings, one hour before its report was made public. As per the information received by Zee Media, it is said that IPL COO Sundar Raman had said that he knew of Meiyappan's links with bookies.

5. Srini has also been accused of violating Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) rules. On March 22, 2009 BCCI in a meeting decided to conduct IPL 2 in South Africa. As per RBI guidelines, they agreed to open an account in South Africa to bear the expenses of the tournament. On March 30, Srini struck a pact with Cricket South Africa (CSA) against BCCI's decision to bear the IPL 2 expenses, which would be reimbursed by BCCI and ICC later, as per Srini's directions.

When questioned, he said that it was a standard practice for World Cups and other big ICC events and has been done in the past, thus the RBI's approval wasn't mandatory. However, Enforcement Directorate didn't buy this explanation saying that since the South African account was being run by the BCCI, thus it would issue a notice worth Rs 1079 crores to the Indian board for violating FEMA rules. As per the rules, if the ED manages to prove their claims, it can further slam a fine of Rs 3,000 crore on the BCCI.

6. CLT20 2008 was to be played in India, which couldn't happen due to Mumbai terror attack. But in a governing council meeting held on December 12 2008, Srini said that the 2007 IPL winner and runners up should be declared as winners and the runners up of the tournament. A sum of Rs 10. 40 crores was given to all the teams as compensation. CSK was one of the teams which benefited from it. Not only this, Cricket South Africa was given a sum of Rs 8.16 crores while Cricket Australia received a sum of Rs 12.24 crores. When Arun Jaitley opposed Srini's move, Srini returned the money which had come from IPL's account and didn't speak on other matters. Srini couldn't have done this according to ICC's ethics code.

7. In IPL-2, soon after ECB released Andrew Flintoff to play in the tournament, CSK was keen to sign the star all-rounder but didn't have sufficient money in the purse. They could only afford Flintoff if Deccan Chargers, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals didn't bid for him. Thus, first CSK ousted Chamara Kapugedara from their squad to create more funds and then pressuried RR neither to terminate Pakistani seamer Sohail Tanvir, nor to bid. RCB also didn't show any interest, thereby paving the way for Flintoff's successful inclusion in CSK.

8. To remain at the helm at the BCCI, Srini tweaked rules for the next elections allowing anybody to contest elections from any zone, and not on a rotational basis, as was the case earlier. In 2007, Srini was BCCI's treasurer and also India Cements' Managing Director. According to a BCCI clause, none of the board members could participate in any of the events organised by the board. In the same year, Srini participated in IPL auctions and successfully bid for CSK. BCCI's rule (6.2.1) says that Srinivasan could have been banned for three years for doing so. According to clause 32 of the BCCI, Srini could also have been disqualified from the board. But nothing happened.

9. According to the BCCI, its members need to be told 21 days in advance about any changes to be made in the next Annual General Meeting (AGM). On September 27, 2008, Srini was appointed as the secretary in the AGM. There was no provision for change of any rules in the meeting. But it happened and a new rule was formed which said members of the board will be able to participate in commercial activities related to the IPL/CLT20. Srini had opened the doors for himself for his personal profit, which is a clear case of conflict of interest.

10. In 2010, Srini wanted to include Kieron Pollard in CSK but Mumbai Indians won the bid for him. After that, Srini tried showing Pollard as a contractual member of West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), as a result of which he couldn't play in the IPL. A mail was sent through IPL saying Pollard already had a contract and there was no reason why he should be alllowed play in IPL. But soon, WICB clarified saying Pollard has not been given any contract by the board.

11. As per the IPL player bidding system, it was decided that the names of the players would come randomly, but Srini got it changed just 2 hours before the auction started. Mumbai Indians and other franchises raised their voices against it, but nobody could do much against Srini.

12. According to one IPL rule, after every three years, there would be fresh bidding for the players where any team could buy any player. But Srini was against it as it could go against CSK, who had already built up a formidable squad. The then IPL commissioner Lalit Modi informed all the teams that the rule was made for their benefit. But Srini opposed it saying they could not overlook the personal interests of the teams which had been a part of the IPL since the very beginning. On November 11, 2009 the matter was discussed in a workshop held in Bangkok where 7 out of 8 teams were in favour of the rule. But Srini brought in a new player retention policy into the scheme of things where a team could retain 4 Indian players and 3 overseas players. It was finalised on March 7, 2010 even though the rest of the teams were against it.